A question from a future picnic ham maker... when injecting by the bone do you push the needle right to the bone or just into an approximate area?

You want the bone and joints in contact with the cure.... then all the meat.... about 1.5 - 2" apart on the injections.... The idea is to cure from the inside in place of having the cure soak into the meat from the outside... can be done with any cut of meat .... usually meat that is over 2" thick....

There was a question about my injection not being 150 ish Ppm nitrite due the dilution of the nitrite with water, salt, sugar etc.....

Let me explain my thinking.....

I weighed the cure #1 to give 150 ish Ppm nitrite for the weight of the meat.... I'm assuming all the ingredients I injected will stay in the meat even if the liquid evaporates..... The injected ingredients will be "tied up" in the meat cells.... When water evaporates, all contaminates that were in the water will be left behind.... that is the same thing that happens when you make distilled water..... everything stays behind and pure water evaporates that can later be condensed to distilled water... I could be wrong... but look at the other methods we use to cure meat.... Other than dry brine curing, where you weigh the ingredients and rub them into the meat, this is the closest thing I could come up with that resembles an accurate way to add ingredients into a single hunk of meat...

If discussion needs to be done about this method, please start a new thread so this thread is not screwed up.... If I need to amend this thread, for food safety reasons, I will do it later.....

Nice job and the hand tied string. I still hand tie certain cuts but also use the stocking. I got a deal a year ago from sausage maker on some stocking and I think I have enough to last me the rest of my life. I bought like 100' but what they don't tell you is the stuff stretches to double its size, so if you order some please know this.The meat you did has excellent color rendition.

Nice job and the hand tied string. I still hand tie certain cuts but also use the stocking. I got a deal a year ago from sausage maker on some stocking and I think I have enough to last me the rest of my life. I bought like 100' but what they don't tell you is the stuff stretches to double its size, so if you order some please know this.The meat you did has excellent color rendition.

Dexter

Not sure but I think the color comes from a good pellicle and good clean smoke from the AMNPS and MB mod....

I did order a 10 pk of small bags.... At times I need room in my small smoker... I did notice they appear to block smoke... One thing they will do is provide a uniform heat to what ever is hung up... something the racks can't do... This smoking bug is keeping us on our toes to keep looking for new ideas and making improvements... when will it end.... I think I may have room to hang up 4 butts at one time, maybe... that will remove the strain on pulled pork... we sure eat a lot of it... it's one of our favs.... and Lisa gets to sell more vacuum bags....